Putting Love on the Table

Mexican wedding cookies

by spree on November 28, 2011

When my brother and his new wife were married at our home this summer, our Mom brought Mexican wedding cookies. Every year they also appear at Christmas. They’re a lovely, buttery little cookie, tasting of toasty walnuts and covered with a dusting of white. They look like a snowball rolled downhill to me and seem so right on a plate of holiday cookies. But, somebody named them first, so Mexican wedding cookies they are.

We’ve had a busy four or five days. We’d feasted on Thanksgiving with fifteen around our table. Friday we finished cleaning up after the feast and then briefly braved the crowds. Saturday, after pulling boxes and boxes from the attic, our Christmas tree was lit and dressed with ornaments collected over years. Sunday, we had family for breakfast before they headed out of town. With no precise plan for the rest of the day, a little slow and easy pre-holiday baking sounded more restful than a nap.

I’d made this snowy little confection recently as part of a cookie platter we took to a party. I do remember pulling the recipe card from its sleeve inside a large binder, but its space was now vacant. I looked in files I keep near by desk, files filled with ideas to sample and recipes I intend to post. Not there. I looked in my cookbooks, thinking maybe I’d used the recipe card as a bookmark. (Truth is: I looked in each of those places several times, disbelieving my eyesight the times before.) I looked in all kinds of unlikely places too, places I’m a bit embarrassed to confess. (Might I have left it in the laundry room on one of my many trips there? You never know.) But gradually it became clear: Mom’s recipe had gone missing.

Plan B: I’d seen a recipe for the same cookie in a special baking issue of Cook’s Illustrated and I’d wanted to sample it anyway. Thought I’d try it side-by-side my mom’s. The side-by-side would have to wait.

We’ve loved this cookie of mom’s. Trying to prepare myself for the possibility, I thought: No matter which recipe I end up using in the future, I’ll always associate this cookie with mom and the holidays. It will always be her cookie. Until yesterday, I had two unanswered questions: Can we improve upon perfection? and Why should we even try? I’ve explained the why part. Let me speak to improving upon perfection:

The Cook’s Illustrated cookie is not overly sweet, but neither was my mom’s. And it has a wonderful texture. (Some I’ve tried are a bit dry and with no particular taste. Again, not my mom’s.) But where this version shone is in its walnut-ier taste and its supreme tenderness. (The secret: half of the two cups of these healthful nuts are ground, lending their good oil to the mix – and the other half are chopped, providing their softly nutty bite.) Conclusion:

This cookie is one tender, melt-in-the-mouth, dribble-a little-powdery-sugar-on-your-sweater bite of deliciousness!

And yes, every once in a long while, we may need to update our notion of perfection.

~ ~ ~

While enjoying a cookie or two with a cup of tea, I combed through some cookbooks that had come down through my mom’s family, some of them from as far back as the early 1900’s. Some of the ingredients, wow! At least a couple dozen updates to “perfection” have to have taken place since then!

Adjust oven racks to upper-middle-and lower-middle positions. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or use silicon mats.

Using a food processor, grind1 cup of walnuts to coarse cornmeal texture (10 to 15 seconds.) Transfer to medium bowl. Using either the food processor or chopping by hand, coarsely chop the remaining cup of nuts. (5 seconds in food processor.) Transfer to the same bowl and add the flour and salt.

In a large bowl, either using hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the butter and superfine sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract. With mixer on low, slowly add the flour-nut mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape the bowl and beaters, then continue to beat on low speed until the dough is cohesive. (About 7 seconds.)

Working with one tablespoon at a time, press and roll dough together into balls and lay on prepared sheets, about 1 inch apart.

Bake cookies until pale gold and the bottoms are just beginning to brown, about 18 minutes, switching and rotating baking sheets halfway through the baking.

Allow cookies to cool on the cooking sheet for 10 minutes, then move to cooling rack to cool completely, about 1 hour.

Using either a bowl or a paper bag filled with confectioners’ sugar, roll the cookies to coat. Just before serving, re-roll and gently shake off any excess.

Oh Mama, I trust that recipe will show up somewhere. We do love them so. This Cooks’ recipe sounds like a good resource, though.
I must say, the sight of those cookies in front of the Christmas lights has put me in the mood for Christmas like nothing else has this year. I’ve wanted to hunker down in the autumn and Thanksgiving place. But after this, Christmas might just start coming to our house sooner than I’d thought. Beautiful! Thank you again for the loving and lovely inspiration.

I think using pecans is more common in the south-east and walnuts in the north-east because people tend to use nuts that are grown locally more for recipes like this. My parents have a several big pecan trees in their front yard, so I always have plenty of pecans from them. Walnuts can be as high as $5 a bag here though. (And you can only find them in bags.)

Try putting the colon and the bracket together without any space in the middle, and make sure there’s a space after it (and before it too if there are words that come before it) 🙂 I hope it works! (let me know how it goes!)

Karl, many aliases for this cookie and, yes, Russian Tea Cookie is one. As far as I know, no culture refers to them as little snowballs which means a whole lot of folks are missing the obvious! A lot of recipes out there for this cookie of many names, but this is truly a great one!

My Mom called hers “Russian Tea Cakes” and used Pecans, too. I have a recipe in a Mexican cookbook that calls for pecans or walnuts. I have one recipe card that calls them “Snowball Cookies,” and I think it is in my grandmother’s handwriting. They have always been a part of our Christmas cookie repertoire as they last a long time in a tightly closed container and taste better after a week.

Thanks for clearing that up. My grandmother (from Slovenia) made them crescent-shaped and as kids, we called them “false teeth cookies”. I like the round snowball shape better, but the taste is the same–delicious.

Congrats on being freshly pressed! My fingers are crossed that you find your mom’s recipe… it will surely turn up somewhere, it always does:) These look delicious, but I shan’t make them until you repost with your mom’s:)

: ) I just spoke with my mom. The recipes are very much the same, with only a couple minor variations. She uses salted butter. I bake with unsalted and add salt. Proportions were the same but in the recipe I posted today, half the total nuts were ground to allow for the nut oils to mix with the flour. It did make for an even more tender little cookie! And thanks for the congrats!

I love that you started this post with a story about your holiday events. Really drew me in, and got me in the spirit to bake! Which is something I don’t do that often. Cooking, yes. Baking, no.

My husband started a new job today and I was wondering what to make him as a surprise. Now I have the perfect idea! Thank you so much for the suggestion. Plus, the kids and I now have a fun afternoon activity (they love the food processor!).

Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed — and thank you for all the tips included with your recipe. I never knew you could put powdered sugar on cookies with a paper bag. Love it. Again, kid-friendly. 🙂

Thank you! We made them, he loved them, it’s a great recipe. And it really did make 48 cookies. (I don’t know what I do when I bake, but I usually end up shortchanged.)

The kids helped with everything, from using the hand mixer, to — their favorite — rolling the dough into little balls. And I gave them each a bag with powdered sugar in it for the final step — I have to give this a Kid Stamp of Approval.

Yes, I just made that up. But your recipe is so deserving! And thank you for the congratulations for my husband. 🙂

Such memories are tied to these “Little Snowballs”! Yaya coming to the house with plates full of these and others. But these were my personal fave. Love the way they bust in your mouth like a good shortbread and shower your taste buds with walnutty goodness.

I’ve made these every year with pecans and have heard them referred to as Mexican wedding cookies, Russian tea cakes, and sand tarts (although with the latter label, they are usually the same recipe, only crescent shaped). In my family, we’ve started calling them crack balls, because we can’t stop eating them as if there is something as addicting as crack inside. It’s a bit vulgar I admit, but we do have a crazy sense of humor 🙂

I usually make a box of 3 cookies every holiday for family, and these are ALWAYS requested. And this year I helped host a bridal shower tea party, so I made these with a hint of raspberry flavoring, then ground red sugar and mixed it in with the powdered sugar that I rolled these in. They came out delightfully light pink and overshadowed every other little delectable my sister and I had made. It made me think how else I could tweak the recipe throughout the year….cocoa crack balls anyone? 🙂

Love it!! Thanks for leaving such a great comment! I was just wondering this morning…. hmmm…I wonder how I’ll tweak these little beauties, give them a new twist, something new to write home about. I love your idea! And I know some pink-loving little girls who would too.

mmm…Russian Tea Cakes! My aunt makes these and they are amazing. My mom and I tried her recipe once and they were not the same – I think she’s holding back a secret. Ours were good but did like disintegrate like hers do! So now they are “her” cookie! I can’t wait for Christmas!

Ahh…an old family favorite. We always called them Russian Tea Cakes, but what’s in a name, anyway? The mere thought of them puts me in my mother’s kitchen at Christmas time. Your images are delicious. Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed- every WordPress blogger’s dream!

yum. Isn’t it funny how some recipes just bring so many memories with them? I have a recipe for Italian Creme Cake that I’ve always been afraid to make b/c it can’t possibly be as good as I remember it being. memories are funny like that. Good luck finding Mom’s version. I’m bad about using them as bookmarks…

Oh, I hope you dare to make your Italian Creme Cake one day! (You’ve probably heard – “Feel the fear, but do it anyway.” I wouldn’t say that applies to all things, but regarding Italian Creme Cake, absolutely spot on advice!)

My family is Greek and we have a version as well. Now that you have me started I’ll have to look it up. We call them Kourabiedes (which doesn’t mean anything as far as I know) however I DO know this. My mom adds some cognac to the dough and pokes a clove in the middle of every one. I remember being a kid and loving the taste of the clove but being careful not to bite it cause it bites back! I wonder if these cookies started east and went west or the other way around…from Russia to Mexico and back!

I loved your description of the cookies, especially the “dribble-a-little-powdery-suger on your sweater” kind of cookie. Such a great image as we delve into the plate of those wonderful little cookies.

Oh my gosh, these are the exact cookies that my mom used to make and they were always my favorite. They just melt in your mouth and my mom also ground the nuts. This sure brings back memories of Christmas for me as a kid. Thank you and great post.

These look wonderful, and while my grandmother (Antonia) did not make these, I have always wanted to have my own family recipe for my favorite cookie. I might adopt this one. 🙂 I just found your beautiful blog on freshly pressed. I love it all. Thank you.

Sounds like I just found the new cookie to add to my Christmas collection! Thanks!
Ever tried them with almonds, or macadamias (an Aussie fave)? I’m so tempted to try these with a few different varieties, or blends, of nuts.

No, I haven’t tried with macadamia or almonds. My thinking is though that almonds wouldn’t work as well as pecans or walnuts, both of which have a higher oil content that makes these cookies so tender. Macadamia – I love them but again, not sure about the oil content. Please let me know if you try though!

This was wonderful to read, these cookies were one of the ones my mother always made for Christmas too. They are one of my favorites. After reading this I think I will get out her recipe and give it a try (might try your new recipe too). Brings back great memories…Thanks.

This is a wonderful recipe! It’s almost identical to one I’ve used – with the notable exception of superfine sugar. I’ve always used standard confectioners sugar whipped into the butter and about 1 1/2 tablespoons less flour and 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract. I will definitely be trying this version soon! It is also quite the delicacy when almonds or macadamia nuts are substituted for walnuts or pecans. Great post and congrats on being freshly pressed!

Hi Antoinette, I unfortunately don’t know you as well as I feel I should, but I LOVE your daughter Ali & her expanding family, and I am so thrilled for you and your bursting at the seams blog! I adore all of your posts, and am currently getting ingredients out to make the Mexican Wedding cookies with my daughter, Chloe to bring to a Duck game with friends tomorrow. Go Ducks & Go YOU !!

Krista, I was so delighted to hear from you! Ali speaks so often about you (and your family) and how much fun you all have together. I WISH I knew you better and maybe one happy day I will! Thanks so much for your comments on my blog – my heart is full! And Go Ducks!!! 🙂

Hey your images are fab! Especially the lights in the background. Seem to light up the whole image. Do drop by my blog sometime, I just did it first ever dessert recipe post and I’d love to know what you think.

WOW ! Those looks extremely tasty! Mom is doing a big Christmas party with friends, neighbors, colleagues, and she wants it to be perfect! I might suggest her those cute cookie balls! Btw I really love your pictures (:

Reblogged this on So Many Places to Call Home and commented:
I am so looking forward to giving these I try when I get home- I thought you guys might be interested in them too.
I’ll let you know how it goes.

Heya just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know a
few of the pictures aren’t loading properly. I’m not
sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different internet browsers and both show the same outcome.

I appreciate so much your comment Marla. I’m not sure what to think. (This sort of thing has sometimes happened on my iPad, but I’m checking right now on my computer and all images are loading properly.) Sorry you experienced a bump here! And again, very thoughtful of you to let me know!

Love on the Table

This site is dedicated to family and friends with whom I've shared the table and all the many blessings there - and to others who have found on the table or in their own kitchens a love language, both savory and sweet. May we all keep putting love on the table!

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